To top off what has already been a really busy week full of too much information, we bring in Claire Hooper from Good News Week to talk about the election night coverage.

Remember the extreme game show / early reality series The Mole? Well, Brooke Marshall was the winner of series 2 of that show and she comes in to give us a bit of a 10 year retrospective on what reality was like back then.

There’s a whole bunch of news and some pork as well so get into it.

We might not have a government but we do have episode 238 of Boxcutters.

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Send us an email about all the things we asked you to this week.

This episode is supported by IceTV, giving Boxcutters listeners three special offers, including 30% off a 12 month subscription. Find out more at icetv.com.au/boxcutters

Two brothers wage a war on evil, fuelled by their loved ones taken from them prematurely and the legacy left to them by their father.

Wow. So dramatic? Already? On the one hand, that really is Supernatural in a nutshell. It is an ultimate battle against demons, wraiths, succubi, ghosts and, yes, the occasional vampire. It is what I like to call “conflict with a capital K (for Killing)”. It is pure drama.

With all those other-worldly baddies, though, it’s also a perfect opportunity for some nail-biting, pillow-clutching horror. Very rarely have we had a chance to see good horror on television. There have been attempts but, really, since the early demise of American Gothic in 1996, nothing has come close.

So we’ve got the drama and we’ve got the scares. There’s a rule of three in storytelling and the third thing here is comedy. The comedy is mild, wry and sometimes relies on knowledge of the characters and their history. That’s not a bad thing. Instead of the comedy being a draw card to the series, it’s more like a prize for long-term viewers.

There is so much to love in Supernatural, it’s hard to imagine why it’s not one of the more popular shows on TV. While it’s a great show to watch, it’s possibly a hard show to sell. It doesn’t have the novelty factor of something like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Channel 7 kept spinning that around the schedule until it found a home amongst the insomniac university students who kept it alive in a late-night slot.

1970s and 80s heavy-metal ballads, muscle cars, leather jackets and scowling faces on the backdrop of the American mid-west does not really make for appealing teaser production from an Australian point of view. It’s not about police and it’s not about lawyers or set in a hospital. In fact, on a surface level it’s not about anything that a new audience can identify with.

What it is about, though, is good old-fashioned horror, action and thrills. It’s a comic book on the screen. Heroes save people in peril and sometimes get into peril themselves. In that sense it’s predictable. But so what? Every now and then we need a little escapism. We need adventure and we need good guys kicking bad guys’ arses. Supernatural gives us that but with a style and sense of Americana unlike anything we’ve seen.

Supernatural started the year after Lost and the year before Heroes. It really should appeal to audiences of both and especially those who loved the former but found the latter lacking in any substance. Unlike Heroes, it tells a big story by focusing on a small portion of it. It builds suspense rather than forcing mystery and disseminates information as required rather than creating artificial and soulless reveals.

Mostly, though, it’s fun and intelligent entertainment. Supernatural is exactly the kind of escapism we should be inviting into our homes.

Supernatural Season 4, is available on DVD. You can find all your entertainment needs: DVDs, Blu Ray and gaming consoles, including Playstation games, at Sanity Entertainment. —Sponsoring Boxcutters

James Talia joins us to discuss the recent controversy over Channel 7 news and the former NSW Minister for Transport.

We review this year’s Eurovision coverage and the Lost finale.

And we look at the recent shows we’ve reviewed and see how they match up against the Bechdel Test.

All that and more. Just listen.

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Don’t forget to let us know about your list of the greatest TV characters of all time.

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Treme is the new David Simon drama on HBO. We review it for your listening pleasure.

Also, by request, Nelly does a run down of the latest season of Survivor in anticipation of tomorrow night’s finale.

Brett discusses some bad reporting in Ray Watch.

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Hey you. Come and celebrate the wonder of the Eurovision Song Contest with Boxcutters.

Also you can tell us stuff: by email or on the SMS us on 0458 288 837 (0458 CUTTER).

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Nelly Thomas is back in the co-host chair after a very successful comedy festival. We discuss the changes in this year’s Masterchef and review the ABC kids’ series, Dead Gorgeous, in ‘Before and After School’.

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Archer is an animated series on FX in the US. Fox 8 announced it will air on March 7 in Australia so we take a little look.

We talk about Chuck vs the *shudder* “shippers”.

In the news we discuss The Biggest Loser fans gone silly, David Leckie on record and Senator Conroy skis his way into the networks’ hearts.

There’s a Ray Watch, some TV Clichés .

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The League is another show about men and their relationships with one another. We take a good long look at it.

We also have a long conversation about whether or not there is a place for episodic drama on television. It’s a very interesting chat with lots of information. We go a little bit high-brow so you might want to wear your thinking-cap.

There’s also a surprise guest right joining us for One Thing.

Episode 210 is the show that had so much in it, we had to go into extra-long overtime. You have been warned.

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Comedian Nazeem Hussain joins us in the studio to talk about how dark people, Muslims and immigrants in general are portrayed on Australian television.

Then Ben McNair from Channel 7 News sits down for a chat about Haiti, Black Saturday, the ABC’s 24-hour news channel and Kevin Rudd.

It’s jam-packed information from start to finish.

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This week we speak at length to Craig McLachlan. He tells us all about Neighbours, the record industry, the wilderness and Alan Dale.

He’s a wonderful guest. Listen to it.

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Corin and Jenna, one of the geeks and one of the beauties from Channel 7′s Beauty and the Geek, join us in the studio to talk about what it’s like to be part of a reality television series.

Marc Fennell, the star of ABCTV’s Hungry Beast is on the phone discussing the controversies around the first episode.

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